The event was the second in a trio of events spearheaded by the White House, part of an initiative announced in February by Nicole Wong, deputy chief technology officer at the White House and former legal director for Twitter. On January 17, 2014, President Barack Obama had opened the discussion about US intelligence programs, privacy, and big data, and had appointed White House counselor John Podesta to produce a “comprehensive review” of how big data affects individuals’ lives, governments, business, and privacy. “Big data” refers to the extreme breadth, complexity, and variety of data available today, which resists conventional analytical methods.

Watch the video of the event below (2 hr):

Opening remarks:danah boyd, founder of the new Data & Society Research Institute; senior researcher at Microsoft Research; research assistant professor in New York University’s Department of Media, Culture, and Communication

This event was organized by danah boyd with support from Professor Helen Nissenbaum, who teaches at both New York University and the School of Law; Geoffrey Bowker, a professor in the Department of Informatics at the University of California-Irvine; and Crawford.